Associate Director's Reflection on the Anniversary of Roe

The following is a reflection by the Center's Associate Director, Angela Engelsen. To see today's Gospel reading and for more reflections, visit faith.nd.edu.

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion for the full term of pregnancy. In the United States alone, since 1973, 55 million of the most innocent and defenseless among us, our unborn brothers and sisters, have lost their lives to abortion. With such a staggering loss of innocent human life, the U.S. bishops today call us to prayer and penance for the legal protection of unborn children.

As children of the God of life, we are called to work for the enactment of laws that recognize and protect the dignity of each human person, particularly the weakest and innocent in the womb. Law is a great teacher and influences culture, but to ensure effective legal changes, the culture itself must support and promote life. Therefore, we are called to reach out to women and men facing difficulty pregnancies with love and support for them and for the precious lives that God has entrusted to them. We are called to support families. And we are called to reach out with God’s love, compassion, and mercy to those who have been wounded by abortion through our prayers and support of such ministries as Project Rachel. We must bear witness to this culture of life in our daily lives, through our interactions with others, and most importantly through prayer.

So while today is a somber day on which we mourn the loss of so many irreplaceable human lives, may it also be a day of thanksgiving for God’s great gift of life. In gratitude, with God’s grace and through the intercession of the mother of our Lord, Mary—particularly under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn—may we build a culture of life in which the unborn are protected in the law and supported by our culture.